You Can Finally Use Book Covers as Kindle Lockscreens

The Kindle lockscreen has always been whatever. Either you opted for a cheaper e-reader with ads or you got random stock photos of… pens and inkwells. But now Amazon has finally given bookworms what they want: The ability to use book covers as lockscreens.

To get the feature, you’ll need to have a relatively recent, ad-free Kindle to get the feature. Eligible models include the Kindle (8th gen or later), Kindle Paperwhite (7th gen or later), Kindle Oasis (8th gen or later), and the Kindle Voyage 7th gen. If you’re unsure which generation Kindle device you have, you can take a look at this list. Alternatively, you can also go to Settings > Device Options > Device Info to find your Kindle’s serial number and compare it to this list. And if you’re still flummoxed, you can always go to your account info on Amazon, hit “Your devices and content”, navigate to the Devices tab, and check there.

To enable the feature, you can go to the Device Options menu in Settings. At the top, you should see a Show Cover toggle. The displayed book cover will be of whatever book, magazine, comic, or manga you’re currently reading. Which is awesome, but also, something to be mindful of in case you don’t want people to know. (Listen, everyone deserves to read their trashy guilty pleasure novels in peace. We only judge pretentious turds who want to “casually” show off they’re “reading” Infinite Jest or Ulysses.)

Again, this feature is only available if you’ve got an ad-free Kindle. If you have an ad-supported version, you can upgrade for $20 by hitting up customer service or doing it yourself via the “Manage your Content and Devices” tab in account settings.

Don’t fret if you don’t see the option just yet. Check to make sure your Kindle’s running the latest firmware, and try a good ol’ restart. Also, keep in mind the feature is currently in the middle of the global rollout process—it just might not have reached you yet.